Mumbai, April 30 -- The headline equity indices opened Thursday's session with sharp losses, with the Nifty slipping below the 23,900 level. All sectoral indices on the NSE began in the red, led by declines in auto, realty, and private banking stocks.

At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex tanked 937.57 points or 1.13% to 76,621.79. The Nifty 50 index tumbled 301.80 points or 1.25% to 23,875.85.

In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index dropped 1.19% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index fell 0.74%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 952 shares rose and 2,059 shares fell. A total of 154 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 5.04% to ...